Beal Shines Off Bench, Kings Win 5th Straight, LiAngelo Ball's Hit Song 'Tweaker'
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Also, I'm old. Is it great snowman snow? No, man, no. I don't know where I'm gonna go when we get all this snow.

TASMELIS

It is cold, gentlemen. I was just trying to warm up before we started, and the cable came out of the microphone. It was very unfortunate. I jumped. I did some high steps, but I won't be doing that during the show because I lost connection for a second. But all good right now. It's super cold here in Atlanta. I had to turn the heat on in my car. Very weird. Wow. Okay. It is...

I believe as of going live right now on YouTube, it's minus one Celsius. That's about 30 Fahrenheit. So we're below freezing and it's only going to get colder as the week goes on. And you said it's 80% chance of snow on Friday now? It's looking precipitation-ish on Friday skis. Tass, I like that you have added a garbage can and a recycling bin to your shot. Absolutely.

If anybody needs to throw some garbage in, I got it for you right here. Perfect shot. I love it. Yes. I'll do whatever you need. It looks good. It looks good. Everybody joining us live on YouTube, hit the like button, subscribe, podcast listeners, leave us a five-star rating and review, and I would encourage you to come over and check out the YouTube of TAS on Location.

Bundled up. You got the snood on today, Tess. Is that what that is? Everybody needs a snood. I'm covering up my nose throughout the show, JD. Can you still hear me when I cover up my mouth? 100%. Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah, because my nose is getting cold. It looks like it. It's getting a little red already. And we just started. Okay, well, let's get through the show then for Tess so he doesn't freeze his balls off out there. On today's show, we're going to start by drafting last night's best games.

That's a fun segment we do on No Dunks from time to time when there's a bunch of games on. We want to bounce around a little bit. And Tass, we're going to give you the honor of the number one pick. So from the eight games last night, who are you going with first? The Minnesota Timberwolves. They took care of those Los Angeles Clippers. Now this is all about Anthony Edwards, but I want to start with...

the fact that Chris Finch told us, I'm not changing the starting lineup. No. He put Dante DiVincenzo into that starting lineup. So my point is, you can't trust what coaches say at all because DiVincenzo was inserted beside Mike...

or beside Anthony Edwards instead of Mike Conley just to get a little spark going for these Timberwolves. It didn't start well. They scored only... It didn't work. No. Only 16 points in the first quarter. DiVincenzo had zero field goals in the first half. So did Julius Randle. Anthony Edwards was even quiet. Only nine points in the first half. Although he did have a dunk. Anthony Edwards can dunk. But...

It did spark them in the third quarter. They had an incredible run through the second quarter and the third quarter, a 44-25 run. And DiVincenzo, although we were a little concerned yesterday when we talked about this potential starting lineup change, we thought, can DiVincenzo run the point guard? And you could see that he could and that he couldn't at times. I mean, he would run the pick and roll and just decide, you know what, I'm

I'm just going to step out and shoot. So that opened up a little bit of space for Anthony Edwards. He hit a couple threes in the third quarter, and Anthony Edwards, he went off. When I started to say at the beginning here that it was all about Anthony Edwards, listen, I did like the insertion of Dante DiVincenzo, but Anthony Edwards just took this team upon his shoulders. He was ridiculous in that third quarter. He had 15 points. He just...

brought the ball up. Oh yeah, I'll just step into a three step backs, doing whatever he wanted. 15 points in that third quarter, some euros. He looked so good, but the DiVincenzo insertion did something for the Timberwolves because it provided everything

Edwards, just another guy to do something where he could find some corner passes. But Nas Reed also was big in this game. And I mentioned those three guys together because without Mike Conley, those three guys have to share the ball handling. And Nas Reed was big in this game. He ran the 5-5. I call it the 5-5 because he runs a pick and roll with Rudy Gobert. I mean, you can call Nas Reed whatever you want, but he is a good...

pick and roll a handler I mean he starts it up he had 17 uh in this game uh he was really really good in this one and it all came down to the end of this game where yeah DiVincenzo was coming through in the fourth quarter uh but really two minutes left a nice stop by DiVincenzo on James Harden then Anthony Edwards just said wow I I'm just gonna do this minute 15 left uh he stepped out

Free throw line extended what Jim Peterson called the nipple on the broadcast. It's such an odd, odd term. But he calls the three-point line out where the free throw line extended. He pump faked Derek Jones Jr., who...

was able to stop him last year in the conference finals when he played for Dallas, but here for the Clippers, wasn't able to. Anthony was so confident that he pump fakes and hits a three. Then he hits another three and seals it for Minnesota against the Clippers who didn't play Kawhi Leonard in the fourth quarter in a back-to-back situation. Only 20 minutes as...

The Clippers are trying to get him going. So as much as I love the Clippers and call them a potential contender, you have to wonder, you have to watch, unfortunately, Kawhi's minutes as they go up. And you can't believe what Ty Lue says either. You can't believe what any coach says. Because Ty Lue going before Saturday, I'm just going to read this quote from you here as I take off my Canada glove. Oh, geez, be careful. You'll get frostbite. Yeah, I've got some hand heaters in my pockets, but I'm a little too tough.

to use those right now. But Kawhi said, excuse me, Ty Lue said about Kawhi going in to Saturday's game. Friday, he said, you know what? We're going to rule out Kawhi Leonard. 3.5 hours later, they upgraded him, Leonard, to questionable. And he was asked, why are you doing that? He said, Leonard was going to play. I just didn't want to be bothered by you guys. So they play it. They played it well. And I think in the end, Chris Finch played it well in inserting DiVincenzo because he

first half was, was garbage for them. But again, just somebody to take a little pressure off Anthony Edwards as they try and figure things out. Nasri taking over for Julius Randle in the fourth quarter. Chris Finch will play any lineup there. He's still trying to figure it out, but I do think,

The enthusiasm was there. You even saw them get super excited for Joe Ingles inbounding a ball for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Joe Ingles doesn't play basketball anymore. He hasn't played in two months, basically. And he inbounded a ball.

And that was it. Oh, yeah. And that was his job. And they were all excited for him. They loved it. They absolutely loved Joey. It was a nice inbounds. It was. It was. It was very solid. He didn't panic. He threw it into the backcourt. At the end of the fourth quarter. Yeah. This got really close, though, this game here, too. It was a weird, like, there was a couple chances that the Clippers could have either got this to overtime or even won this thing. Just these weird, like, offensive rebounds and missed free throws on purpose. But in the end, they pull it off. And, like, I think, like Tass said, he got to it, right? Like, Anthony Edwards just hit.

some huge shots down the stretch when the Clippers had a lead. 13 points in the fourth quarter for Ant, and he figured out how to beat double teams, just shoot it before they get there. Literally, that was what happened. You could see Harden coming to double him, but he's getting the jumper off from a couple of steps from behind the three-point line and was in such a good rhythm that it was dropping. Tess is right, like...

DiVincenzo in for Mike Conley I think helped Mike Conley more than it helped DiVincenzo, at least in the first half, because I was a little bit worried for this Timberwolves team. Got down 19 in the second quarter. Looked pretty flat, and you're like, uh-oh, they did do a change after this liar Chris Finch told us they weren't. And it didn't work right away, but then in the second half, it seemed like everybody started playing a lot better. DiVincenzo finished with 15 points. Conley, 11 points, four boards, three assists.

Jaden McDaniels hit three threes, including that one in the fourth quarter. I was like, why did he even shoot that? Caught the pass from Edwards, guy all over him, jab step, and then hit the three. I think that was big for him. And...

Nas Reid for Julius Randle was interesting at the start of the fourth quarter. I thought even more interesting last four minutes. Neither of those guys played. It was just one big for the Timberwolves, getting as much shooting as they possibly can on the court, I think is the strategy there for Chris Finch. And they're playing against a Clippers team who's generally playing pretty small, except for Zubats out there. So like Tess said, Chris Finch will try any lineup right now, and it's pretty smart of him to try any lineup right now because...

It's working out the combinations that actually work. And so good stuff to pull out that win, getting down early. It was scary time. It was like they're going to get booed off the court at halftime here. But they came back, bunch of huge runs, awesome stuff from Minnesota. Yeah, so the Wolves improved to 18 and 17 with that win. So they're back above 500. Clips fall to 20 and 16. And yeah, Tess said it. Kawhi back, you know, he hit a couple threes again, but three of 11 overall, only the 20, 21 minutes. He finished with eight points. And they're going to slow play this game.

no matter what Tyloo and the Clippers organization is going to tell us, you know, it's going to take some time and they're going to take their time, obviously trying to work them back into as much, you know, to a hundred percent as possible as you can with Kawhi. All right. So that is game one. Let's go to UTK. Number two pick overall. Well,

Well, shout out to baseball and cricket. It was a game of runs between the Detroit Pistons and the Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers, 14-2 run in the first quarter, take a huge lead. The Pistons battle back. The Blazers go on a 17-0 run to start the second quarter. Pistons answer that basically immediately with a 14-0 run. Then to start the third, Pistons go on a 10-0 run. So on and so forth until the fourth quarter when we got a mini-duel.

between Anthony Simons and Tim Hardaway Jr. They hit four threes, like back to back to back to back. Simons had 17 in the fourth. He hit three threes, and Tim Hardaway hit three threes in the fourth quarter. He finished with 11 in the quarter. Two of those threes from Tim Hardaway Jr. came at a very important time, I thought, for the Pistons. Cade Cunningham had an awesome game in this one, 30 points through three quarters, finished with 32, but he sat three minutes in the fourth quarter.

With no Ivy out there, it's kind of like, who's going to do the scoring? And it literally was Tim Hardaway Jr. He went off. He had his couple of threes. I think he hit a mid-ranger as well. Like I said, Cade finished with 32-9, but Tim Hardaway Jr. hit the threes. Malik Beasley hit a big three as well. And then three throws too. And then Jalen Duren had a tip dunk that kind of was the dagger, I thought, for the Pistons. It's their seventh win in eight games for Detroit, and they're 500 for the first time after New Year's.

since 2019. Since we were the starters.

Wow, yeah. They have never been over 500 after New Year's since we've been doing No Dunks. We've done over 1,300 episodes as No Dunks with The Athletic. That's a long time, and it's nice to see the Pistons at 500 tasks. Any thoughts on them climbing to 18 and 18 here? Yeah, just going through that, I realized that Cade Cunningham, this is year four for him. I mean, the only time he's been over 500 was when they were 2-1 last year.

That's it. That's the only time. And so he must feel incredibly good. He signed that max extension this past offseason. He's leading this team. They got him some shooters, which definitely helps him. Yeah, big time. And so he just must feel incredibly good. And it has been impressive this year because it could have easily been one of Cade Cunningham's first three years

in his career they started oh and four they started eight and twelve they started 10 and 15 but they continued to fight and yes they have shooters but even without jay navi noah sar thompson uh yesterday as well with an illness him sitting out so they were lacking scores but tim hardaway what a monstrous addition he's i mean he's been really really good uh in that trade from dallas

had Chauncey Billups getting sort of honored there too. Obviously the coach of the Blazers and they did sort of something for the Detroit 2004 championship and his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. So we got a very competitive game. That was fun. I know, it's weird to say at this point, even late in the season. It's like, oh, a Blazers-Pistons game on a Monday night. Entertaining. I'm sure you guys were bouncing around and saw a little bit of this one on playback. We took in quite a bit. For the second half. There you go. All right, I'll keep it moving here with the third pick overall.

I'm going with DeRozan scoring nine of Sacramento's 11 points in the second overtime as the Kings beat the Heat 123-118 to extend their winning streak to five games under Doug Christie. Are you a Christian?

That's what I saw someone say. Real believer. That's right. Biggest sequence of this game for me came with like 145 left in regulation. The Heat, who at one point were leading this game by 17 points. I mean, they blew this one, and that's sort of been their MO this whole season. They have these big leads and they blow them. They were holding on to a five-point lead late, regulation,

Keon Ellis took a really sort of tough, contested, off-balance jumper in front of the heat bench. He missed, but the ball took a super high bounce. Tyler Hero, a lot smaller than Keegan Murray, not the greatest box out either. Keegan Murray grabbed the offensive board over Hero. It found its way to DeRozan. He drove...

good D here from the Heat. DeRozan got caught in the air. He's like, I'm not shooting it, so I'm going to try and pass it, but he didn't really have anyone to pass to. So he almost just dropped it, but luckily for him, Keon Ellis was sort of cutting. He came up with the ball, got it to Murray in the corner, who banged home a three. Suddenly it was a two-point game. And then immediately after that,

And it wasn't really because of King's ball pressure. Tyler Hero just like brought the ball up super slowly and like again, there were a couple Kings guys there and right at the last second, Tyler Hero realized, "Holy crap, I'm gonna get an eight second violation." Tried to get over the line, but that King's bench, Doug Christie, everybody was on it. "That's a violation, that's a violation!" Ref called it, it was the right call, I don't think he got across. And that was huge because after a couple misses from both ends, the Kings would eventually tie this and get it to overtime. So that was a big sequence

And I brought up Ellis within that sequence. He was awesome, Tass. Once again, you know, him inserted into the starting lineup, making huge defensive plays. I think I saw something like he may have had like 15 deflections alone last night. Now, I know it was a longer game than normal, being a double overtime game, but that's incredible. Keegan Murray, good defense on Tyler Hero once he got switched on to him in this game. And then Sabonis, just like a workhorse. Like, you know, he actually pulled that team together at one point, like,

with about eight minutes to go when they were down big, got the team together around the free throw line, and obviously was like, let's go here. Come on. We can win this. We can get back in this game. So I thought those three guys defensively tasked, but Keon Ellis, I know who you love. Again, awesome. Absolutely. He is the second coming of Doug Christie. I mean, I'm a Christian believer. It's one of those things that reads better than says. Yeah. Christian. Yeah. As I listen to you from outside, I wonder,

What is he going with? Oh, okay. I get it. I do get it. But Keon Ellis, I am a believer, no doubt. It is weird. You mentioned that play. 1.30 left in the fourth quarter. DeMar DeRozan down five drives. Has nowhere to go. So basically just drops it on the floor. But Keon Ellis...

is doing something which is very useful. Not standing around, he's just moving. And he just literally just tapped the ball to Keegan Murray who hit that monstrous three. And that was huge. Now, at the end of regulation, he could have ended this game. He could have hit two free throws, but he only hit the one. So, yeah, he was hard on himself, but he is just a guy who will not stop. He's a guy who isn't a high draft pick.

obviously. There hasn't been a lot made about him, so he will continue to fight for everything he gets in the NBA, and that's something that the Kings need, period, and

And so it was good to see him do that. Yeah, he's got to play when Fox comes back. That's why he's getting a ton of minutes right now. But I think he's going to be a more vital piece of Doug Christie's rotation than he obviously was with Mike Brown. Hit three threes in the fourth quarter. And like you said, Tass, he grifted those free throws at the end of overtime. Like he probably traveled in the corner on that one, but they got the win. He made some shots. So I don't know. I guess it'll be Malik Monk will have to go back to the bench.

His playmaking's been pretty big, I think, for the Kings, but I think they need the defense from Keon Ellis and the needing the ball. Like, he doesn't need the ball. He just runs around out there. That's very helpful to have a fifth starter who just gets in where he fits in. So I think that should be the play for Doug Ramos.

when De'Aaron Fox comes back. I think he's got a bruised butt cheek, right? I think so, yes. A buttocks contusion. That's the nice way of saying it. DeRozan hit a big jumper. It looked like Bulls-DeRozan once again in the fourth quarter through both overtimes. He hit the one with 13 seconds left to put the Kings up by five, and Mark Jones yelled, belated Happy New Year!

It's the last day you can say it, apparently, according to Larry David. Exactly right. Had to sneak it in. Larry David says you can't say Happy New Year after January 7th, I believe is his official term. A couple boneheaded plays from the Heat, too. I mean, we brought up the one where Tyler Hero got the eight-second violation. That's rough at that point of the game. Hawkeyes missed a wide-open three in the corner in front of the Kings bench. That probably would have iced it at the end of regulation. And then Haywood Highsmith...

After some misses, he fouled Sabonis 94 feet from the rim. I mean, this was a rebound that Sabonis grabbed, a defensive rebound. It was off the Hawkins' miss. And he fouled him. And it was like, oh my God. And that put Sabonis to the line. He clanked home the first free throw. It was like, he nearly almost...

It was between the backboard and the rim. It was like right at the back of the rim and it just like died on the spot and fell in and then he hit the second one and he switched that so he hit both. But a couple of those plays really did the heat in. And I saw this like, this is now the fourth game the Heat have lost where they've led by 15 or more. And that is the most blown...

15-point leads this season. That's bad. They've done it twice to the Kings now because it happened in early November. To the Suns, they had a 15-point lead. Remember, they were up on the Magic, what, 25 points right before Christmas and then now this one. So don't love to see that. I will say...

Hawkins Jr. did have a good game. I mean, he filled up the box score, 16 points, 12 boards, 10 assists. One of his best all-around games as a pro. But I do feel like he probably didn't sleep a lot last night. He's probably thinking of that missed three in the corner. And then at the end of regulation, he missed two free throws. That probably would have, again, wrapped it up in all likelihood for Miami. So tough loss for them.

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Tass, back to you, though, for your fourth overall pick. I'm taking the Phoenix Suns defeating the Philadelphia 76ers. Now, this ain't about their new starting lineup. Bradley Beal to the bench. Yusuf Nurkic to the bench. Miles Plumlee.

Come on in. You got it. And Ryan Dunn, come on in. You got it. But I was not convinced by this Phoenix Suns win whatsoever as my eyes tear a little bit. I'm not crying for Bradley Beal. It's just chilly out here. But Bradley Beal went to the bench. He looked like a different player. In all honesty, he looked...

extremely spry. Now, maybe that's just me and watching, but he got to the rim extremely fast. He was 10 of 15 from the field, 25 points for him. I thought he looked just ready to go as soon as he was inserted because they needed him desperately. The reason they made the starting lineup change is it's, it's a tad for offense, but a lot of it is for defense and miles Plumlee is,

He can't be that guy at center. He just can't. He can't be Miles either. It said Mason. I know. I've been thinking about Mason and Miles forever. Yeah, so Mason, I always get them wrong for some reason. Big shout out to Marshall. Yeah, the other one. The other one. Nobody talks about him. Duke, right? Oh, good time. Yeah, so Mason Plumlee, he just doesn't have it, unfortunately. It's not that he's a bad...

defender coming in for Yusuf Nurkic, but he's too slow. First possession of this game for the Philadelphia 76ers. He couldn't get out to Gershon Yabusele, who's starting for center because no Embiid, no Drummond. So the Phoenix Suns

what the format was and they knew how to play, but they couldn't spark the defense at all. Possession after possession after possession. Huge gaps between the defender and the offensive player. I mean, there were like lakes out there and what they were supposed to do. Mason Plumlee allowed that. Then Kelly Oubre drove into the lane.

Devin Booker provided him a little bit too much room. Kelly Oubre banged it home. Then Tyrese Maxey literally just started dribbling up the floor to start a possession. Nobody guarded him. He banged home a three. Then Oubre drove again baseline. Booker didn't help. So Mike Bootholzer...

Had to call a timeout and say, what are we doing here? The Phoenix Suns, they're trying to figure out what they're doing there. Offensively, the problem is, yes, they're a mid-range shooting team. That is what they do. They're 29th in offensively.

dunks their 30th by far in terms of layups and shots at the rim. That is what they do. That's fine. Offensively, they can do it, but I don't see a spark coming defensively for this team, even though they went after, really, Bradley Beal came in to the lineup and helped them out because they got off to a slow start. But I'm just not convinced. I'm not convinced watching this team, not convinced by the chemistry. And after the game, Bradley Beal was asked about

this no trade clause. He was asked, does this all mean you going to the bench, this whole Jimmy Butler thing that you could be dealt? He said in response to the trade clause, he said, quote, if so, I need to be addressed because I hold the cards. That is savage. That's a great answer for him. I mean, he looked really different out there for this one game.

But I'm not convinced that it's going to last a long time. He is going to come off the bench for a while. Mike Budenholzer said after the game, this isn't just a day-to-day, game-to-game thing. We're doing this. And I think the worst thing is, I mentioned the center spot with Mason Donconley, Miles Plumlee coming in. They don't have an athletic center to really help them out. The use of Nurkic body language, I'm reading into this, but he came in and only played 14 minutes in this game. I didn't think he had it. I didn't think he was providing enough.

We always question Bradley Beal and whether he's going to play game to game to game. I was wrong. I thought he would. I think the same question can be said for Yusuf Nurkic. I think also Iguodaro and the beautiful pass that he had to Bradley Beal was a lot more convincing to me that he's got the athleticism. They're just an old team. They're kind of caught. They're getting old, and they've got these young guys, Iguodaro, Ryan Dunn, but they're

At the same time, the Rooks, they're way too young. So they have this gap that I don't think they can really close. So it's going to be an interesting month that Bradley Beal, I suppose, may say, hey, trade me. I'd love to be a number one guy somewhere else. I think that is a possibility. But I don't see the Phoenix Suns turning this thing around. They get out to those big deficits. You mentioned Skeets, the Miami Heat one, that they get out to these big leads, I should say, the Phoenix Suns. Also,

aren't able to recover from a lot of their big deficits. I know in the opposite way, they just don't start games all that well. That wasn't really a good comparison to the Miami Heat. I take it all back. The cold is getting to you. It's having an impact on you. It's more of the Minnesota Timberwolves is a better connection because the Timberwolves get out to big deficits. They overcome it. These Suns do not. They do not overcome it. Abil

definitely was a spark off the bench, but he wasn't happy about it. His comments are fascinating. He said after the game, coach made his decision, live with it.

It's kind of twofold. I'm a starter in the league. I firmly believe that. No disrespect to anybody, but I'm a starter. Coach made a decision. I'm not going to sit there and argue with him. I'm not going to sit there and be a distraction. Okay. Being a pro. Didn't he also say, I'm not going to be an a-hole? I'm not going to be an a-hole. Yeah. What a lie. I don't think he was grumpy by any means.

In any way, though. Really. I don't think he was taking it in. He said, yeah, I'm not going to question what the coach is doing. I'm not going to be an a-hole. Yeah, but he's not happy about coming off the bench. No, he still thinks he's a starter in this league. Like I say, it's different than Mike Conley, an 18-year vet, coming off the bench, and he seemed more welcoming to that, and like, okay, I get it. Whereas Beal believes, and maybe rightfully so, that I'm still a starter in this league, and

And these guys do take it to heart. Absolutely. They do. But it did work in this game. Yeah, he should have played worse. If he wants to start, he shouldn't have played so well. 25 points and five assists. Their bench outscored the 76ers bench 54-7. I think Beal had 20 in the second half alone. He also played 11 of 12 fourth quarter minutes. That's what a starter does. Osuikidoro played 12 minutes in the fourth quarter. I think, like Tass is saying, he's going to be a bigger piece for the Suns just because he moves more.

We'll see how long Beal comes off the bench because an easy solution would be starting Beal for Tyus Jones. Like, Tyus Jones is not an offensive player, and he's really the reason alongside the centers that the Suns are getting killed defensively because when they start Beal, Booker, and Tyus Jones, that's three small guards. Mm-hmm.

that is bad for your defense. They can't really start a Kogi because he's not a shooter as well. So the solution will be moving Beal back into the starting lineup for Tyus Jones if they want to do it. We'll see if they do it. This one was disgusting for the first half, but the second half was fun to watch. Yeah, and I mentioned, yeah, Booker's early possession where he didn't guard Kelly Oubre all that hard or he didn't help out on the Oubre dunk

He's being asked a lot as a perimeter guard. So you bring up a good point there. Is Tyus Jones going to the bench for Bradley Beal the option? Really, it's a trade to change this lineup because they are going to outscore teams, but are they going to out-defend teams? It just doesn't feel like that's the case. All right, let's move to the fifth pick overall. Still lots on the board. TK, where are you going? ♪

I got a bone to pick. Kobe White crushed a dagger dunk on Victor Wemba Nyama's head, and this guy got a 65.2 dunk score, Skeets. I know. The 10th highest of the night. Make it make sense. The third highest of the game. Look at this dunk.

This was ridiculous. A 13.9 defensive contest score from Victor Wembyama, who definitely was a little late to the party. Yeah, he was late. He was late. I don't care. Kobe White got a 94.3 defensive contest score when John Collins dunked on him. Victor Wembyama has more blocks in a month than Kobe White has his entire career. If you dunk and Wembyama touches your body, it should be 100. Simple. Wow.

It's that easy. The guy's 6'2". Wemby is 7'5". That would be like a 10-year-old dunking on you, Steve. Damn. Well, give it time, and I'm sure it'll happen. Huge stuff from Kobe White. 23 points, 9 of them in the fourth quarter. The Bulls put this one away with an 11-0 run to end the game. Basically, because Lonzo Ball subbed in for Josh Giddey, and they took away Chris Paul hitting mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper. Kobe's been...

bringing some nice games together his last five games 24 points five assists shooting 48 from the field 41 from 395 at the line but Zach Levine was the star once again in this one 35 points 10 rebounds eight assists 14 points in the fourth quarter including three threes had two assists as well and no turnovers I love to see it the decision making is always the problem with Zach Levine but he was getting to his spots and he was getting to his spots

He was rising up and he was knocking down any sort of shot he wanted. Great stuff from the Bulls, stringing together those wins like I wanted at the start of the new year. The game has changed. Now they're going for the playoffs. Yeah, I saw you tweet something like they're only four games back from hosting a playoff series. That's right. That's how jammed it is in the Eastern Conference. So I guess it's in play. Tass, any thoughts on either Kobe White's dunk there on Wemby or the Bulls getting the victory over the Spurs?

Well, I'm taking it home to Toronto. Trey gets a Chicago win while the Toronto Raptors got destroyed by the Milwaukee Bucks. And that's not extremely surprising that they got beat by the Bucks, but what was more surprising, we didn't get a Greek Heritage Night in Toronto. Oh, damn. And I'm not saying, okay, Giannis, show up. You got to go Greek dance on the floor. No. I just mean give something to the Greek fans of Toronto, period. Right. That's all I'm saying. And as far as the Raptors go...

How will they respond after getting beat by 24 points? But that doesn't tell the story of what this game was. They got destroyed. They said all the right things after the game. RJ Barrett said, yeah, I mean, we can look at the play and the X's and O's, but we just didn't try all that hard. That is my question. What happens? How will they respond? I do think they said the right things and

Just like everybody in marketing should be saying, we're going to have a Greek night at some point. That should be said as well. I just checked the Raptors schedule too, and the Bucs do not visit Toronto again this season. No, it's probably not going to happen. Interesting, yeah. Although Chicago did get a Greek heritage night early and just before Christmas. So...

With Giannis in town? Yeah. Oh, okay, there you go. Yeah, yeah. Giannis, he's not obligated to come to the floor and give a speech to the 900 Greek fans in the audience. That's not his obligation. That's fine. But just a little Greek dance. I mean, I think he would...

Do a quick Zabekiko and get out of it? It's like Giannis, in theory, gets to celebrate Greek night like 29 times out of the season. Yeah, he is. Every arena he goes to, oh, it's Greek night again. He has a full collection of 29 NBA hats that are in Greek colors. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Chicago had a cool Greek hat, too. All right. Yeah, the Raptors lost, but that's not being drafted here in our game here. But I'll take the final pick. It's a six pick overall. Uh...

I'm going with Jaron Jackson Jr. scoring 35 points to lead the Grizzlies past the Mavs. Now look here, both teams were without their starting backcourts. Grizzlies have no John Morant, no Desmond Bain. They are injured. Same for the Mavericks. You know, Luka out with the calf strain. And then earlier on Monday, Dallas announced that Kyrie Irving is going to miss some time here with a bulging disc in his back.

You gotta make sure you say that one slowly. But he's gonna be out for a couple weeks, so like none of the guards that you would go to see, pay good money to see in Memphis there played last night, but that was okay because Jaron Jackson Jr. did the heavy lifting here for Grizzlies. 35 points, 13 boards, 5 assists. They got the easy victory, 119-104 over Dallas. Just a quick couple notes on this game. I liked what Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins did trying a few things.

We saw first quarter Yuki Kamamura minutes. Oh, yeah. Not a lot, but he was inserted in there. Now they're short on a lot of guys. And he got a couple minutes in the first quarter. You don't see that often. But this, in the second quarter, really smooth move, I thought, from Jenkins to play Triple J and Jay Huff together.

which sounds like an awesome WWE wrestling team. Triple J and Jay Huff competing for the title. But they played together, and that sort of like... The ability of those guys to stretch the floor was a bit of an issue for Derek Lively, who was out there. You know, can't take both guys on. Can only play one. And those guys were banging home some threes. The Grizzlies closed that quarter, that second quarter, on a 17-6 run. So that was a nice coaching decision there. Again, this one...

lost a lot of oomph after, especially after Kyrie Irving wasn't playing, but still Grizzlies get it done. I don't know if you have any notes on it. Well, I saw Jaron Jackson Jr. had 13 rebounds, which ties his career high in the regular season. Wow. He has two 14 rebound playoff games. Did you know Jaron Jackson Jr. has 32 double digit rebounding games in his career in 391 total games. That's actually crazy to me. I know he's not a great rebounder. That's the number one criticism with him.

Only 10% of his games, he has double-digit rebounds? It's not that hard to get 10 rebounds. He's a big-ass dude, too. He's 6'10". Yeah, yeah. He plays a ton. That is shocking. Yeah, that's a low number. This was also fun, though. A couple weeks ago, before you showed the photo, JD, we talked about A.J. Green.

on the Milwaukee Bucks. Dairy Bird, as he's lovingly known as. And for whatever reason, we thought it'd be a great celebration for Dairy Bird, like to do the udders, right? Throw up the udders, somebody milk them. Still sounds weird when you say it out loud.

Well, Luke Kennard, I don't know if he's a fan of the show or what, or maybe he was just doing a weird stretch, but after the Grizzlies scored, there was a shot of the Grizzlies bench, and Luke Kennard, he threw up the udders. Yuki, milk me!

Now, obviously, AJ Green, Dairy Bird was not playing in this game. It was after a very weird Jon Conchar, Jay Huff fast break, though. So white guys involved. But yeah, I just had a laugh when I saw that. I was like, that's the Dairy Bird...

milk celebration we want. So maybe Luke Kennard's trying to get it going, Tass. I showed you that photo earlier, Tass. I know you know what I'm talking about. Yo, absolutely. I love it how you need to make a celebration reference. It's got to be all white guys. It's like comparing white guys to other white guys. It's like A.J. Green miraculously having the nickname Dairy Bird. Yes. It's perfect. When you compare white guys in basketball...

I mean, you have to. You have to compare every white guy. And when you make a celebration reference, it's got to be all the white guys. Dairy Milk, where are you? Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar, where are you to make this happen? Get involved. Get a sponsorship going. Why not? You don't want to be scooped on the milking celebration. No, you don't.

Okay, that's us drafting last night's games. Let's get into the UpDown Report. Up or down on the under celebration. Okay.

Utter or down? First one, according to The Athletic, the Warriors are not interested in trading for Jimmy Butler, who would simply cost too much, both in terms of the max money he maybe wants and the package price of dealing for him. We sort of talked about this yesterday. Instead, the Warriors are looking to make deals for players on mid-tier contracts, and according to sources at The Athletic, Bulls center Nikola Vucevic has emerged as a trade option.

We know what thumbs we're going to see from TK. We'll get to Tass in a second, but up or down on reports that the Warriors actually don't want to pursue Jimmy Butler and would prefer Vucci Baby. Yeah, I'm not actually sure how to relate my thumbs to this. So I'm going to go double down.

I'm going down from the Warriors' perspective. I think they should go for Butler. That's the main thing I'm saying. I think they should prefer Jimmy Butler over Nikola Vucevic. I wonder how much of this is negotiating out in public, saying, yeah, we actually don't want that guy, which could lower the price a little bit. How much of this is expectation setting for their fans, saying it's going to be tough for us to get Jimmy Butler. We're not sure if it's the right move. Were we to go after Vuce? He's cheaper. It's a lower ceiling, definitely, but...

It probably only costs like salary filler, like Looney, I assume, would be in the deal. Maybe Gary Payton the second and then second round picks to get Vooch, which would then mean Golden State could try another move, whether it be in the summer or a more minor move at the trade deadline. But I don't know. This just kind of feels like the Warriors method to me right now. They get off to a hot start. They start struggling. They're in huge trade rumors.

And then they don't really do anything major. Last season in 2024, Corey Joseph got shipped out for second round picks in 2023. They brought in Gary Payton II, even though he was injured at the time. 2022, no moves. 2021, they traded Brad Wanamaker for seconds. I was so happy to write his name in my notes for use today, Skeets. Their last real big trade was 2020, D'Angelo Russell for Andrew Wiggins.

It just feels like the Warriors are hesitant to make a big move because they're worried about what's going to happen after Steph Curry finally retires. They don't want to trade all that stuff in the future. Guess what? Your team's going to stink anyways. You're going to be tanking no matter what. I think they should go for it. It's also a different front office, right? It's Mike Dunleavy compared to Bob Myers in the past, but Dunleavy didn't use Chris Paul's contract to improve the team at all.

Marcus Thompson, Anthony Slater are reporting that the Warriors are kind of accepting that even a trade for Vucevic wouldn't improve the team that much, so why do it? That seems pretty self-defeating to me, to take yourself out of the running for these players when we all see what Steph Curry is capable of doing, when we see the team can be good. An injury to D'Anthony Melton shouldn't throw them this far off the bench.

They're pretty far away, so I think they need to make a move more so for a Butler than a Vooch. But if they want to make a move for Vooch, he will improve their team, guaranteed. So thumbs down from the Warriors' side of this, probably thumbs up from the Bulls' side because you've been trying to trade Vooch for a while. That'd be nice, man. That'd be really nice. Give me a Lippie jersey. Tass, what do you think? Big thumbs up on both sides. Trey brings up good points about Mike Dunleavy being this new sort of front office, making the deal for Dennis Schroeder.

pushes them in a slightly different direction than they have been making smaller deals in the past. And I give them thumbs up both for a potential Vooch deal, but also the potential Jimmy Butler deal actually going for it. Because as far as getting Vooch, it ain't going to cost them that much and it will meet expectations. The Golden State Warriors would like a starting center, but not necessarily a closing center. They've been looking for a good starting center. Trace Jackson Davis, obviously, Kevon Looney. They've started Draymond Green.

But they're not looking for that. They're not looking to support their finishing lineup, I should say. Vucevic can start, but he ain't going to finish. Their finishing lineup, if they still had the same guys, it would be Curry and Schroeder in the backcourt, Kuminga.

Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green playing the five. They want Draymond Green playing the five to end, but playing the four to start. So Vooch wouldn't even finish games. He'd just be there doing the one first quarter and third quarter thing that the Warriors have classically done throughout their winning championship dynasties, whether it's Kevon Looney or Andrew Bogut to start or whoever. So I think it would work on both situations, but I do totally agree that

The more you look at it, you've done everything for Steph Curry. And the one thing you could do for Steph Curry is to go and get somebody who could really, really give them a chance to win a championship. And that is Jimmy Butler. As much as we all ridicule Jimmy Butler and what he's doing right now, he would help them in a postseason. So it would be nice to give that to Steph, give him one more shot because he's

The window is obviously closing extremely quickly. This might be the last time to make it work with Curry and Draymond. And so getting Vooch would help. Getting Jimmy Butler would help even more. Right, but Vooch doesn't vault the Warriors into a legit contender status where you can squint and talk yourself into Jimmy Butler or...

once you get to the postseason, if you get to the postseason, maybe getting you to that level. Now, a lot of people push back on that and say, no, he's sort of washed at this point. That would be bad. It's obviously going to take way more talent going out your door to get Jimmy Butler than it would Vooch as Trey went through, so there's that. And within this article, Brooklyn's Cam Johnson, his name mentioned as another possible potential Warriors target. Sort of weird because they already did a deal with the Nets for Schroeder, but...

Cam Johnson's going to cost more than Vucevic, I believe. It feels like he's more of a first-round pick where Vuce is probably contracting second-rounders. Anyway, let's keep it moving here.

According to The Athletic's Andrew Marchant, Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzki and Lob City King Blake Griffin will join broadcaster Taylor Rooks for Amazon's studio coverage of the NBA. So Prime Video will telecast games beginning with the 25-26 season. That's next season. So Tass, up or down on Blake and Dirk here joining Taylor Rooks. These are reports, but likely joining Amazon's NBA studio show.

I'm up. Definitely up on it. I think specifically with the Dirk insertion, it's because...

They want to make the game bigger. They want to entice European fans. And Dirk would get on these broadcasts, which would be more likely in U.S. afternoon time. So it's primetime European time. And that's what they're going after. I think it's just a smart idea. Get Dirk's name in there. Help out the broadcasts. Andrew Marchand pointed that out. And I think that's totally accurate. And as far as Blake goes...

I love Blake. I think he's just... He's not as buttoned up as a lot of broadcasters. He's just a little... He's obviously extremely fun. And so the broadcaster...

The MO for broadcasters may be changing here as we change the way we take in basketball games. It might be changing as well with Blake, who would be good on both sides. I mean, he obviously knows the X's and O's and all that, but it's nice to have a funny guy on the broadcast. Sure. What do you think, TK? Thumbs up or thumbs down? Two thumbs up. Two thumbs up. Two funny guys.

Blake Griffin and Dirk Nowitzki are like two of the funniest press conferences that we've had since the 2000s. Probably even before. I don't remember press conferences all that much. Did they even have them back then? Probably. I remember Michael Jordan had a couple. Kept retiring. But yeah, these guys will be good. They'll be funny and they'll be alongside Taylor Rooks, the best three-on-three team in broadcasting, I would have to imagine. Neither Blake nor Dirk are too far removed from their playing days. They still know the guys that are in the league, which I think is huge.

And I don't think you're going to get a hating on the game from either of these guys. Blake, maybe more so, you know, he's just got more of like a zinger kind of temperament, I think, than Dirk does. But Dirk's going to be honoring all these guys that we're seeing. He helped usher in three point shooting from big guys. So he's not going to be complaining if, you know, we're taking 10 threes a game at a seven footer. Yeah, I'm up on this as well. On paper, this looks like an awesome,

three people to have on your studio show for a brand new studio show at that in Taylor Rooks and Blake and Dirk. I will just say though, you never know what these things, right? As great as these people are individually, as talented as they are, especially in Taylor Rooks case of being on television, it's,

it's all comes down to chemistry right and you'll have to give that some time give that some reps hopefully have a good team around them as well because it is your production team shout out to JD for making us always look good so we'll see but man on paper this is an awesome start here and they've got Eagle on the play-by-play like they're doing some good things here I believe at Amazon with their NBA coverage excited for it at the very least all right next one here JD bring it in whenever you want because LiAngelo Ball

the middle brother of basketball's famous Ball family has gone viral thanks to this new single called Tweaker. This is wild. Within 24 hours of release, the track basically racked up a million YouTube views. It's like gone even crazier since then. And it's began trending across platforms like TikTok and X. And again, you're hearing it here. It's catchy as hell. TK, I'll start with you. I guess we're now getting it in locker rooms too. The Cavs.

Welcome to Big Banger Zone!

I can't believe how good this song is. New Nate Dog just dropped? It's great. He sounds like Nate Dog on the chorus. I don't know what's happening on the verses, but the choruses are so good. And like you said, it's catching on. The Lions were listening to it after they secured the number one seat in the NFL playoffs. I saw the Nets did like a viral video sort of thing that players are walking in and the social media thing.

says to them, finish the lyric. I might swerve, bend that corner. Wow. And everybody just starts dying laughing and drops the whoa. Once you listen to it once, you want to listen to it again. It's very catchy. Tass, are you thumbs up on LiAngelo Ball's new viral hit song here?

I'm thumbs up. I would say there's a lot of songs where the chorus is good, but I think LiAngelo Ball takes it another level. He's good in the verses, and there's a lot of lines. You can get the analytics to see how many lines a guy raps per verse. Take a look at the numbers. This guy does it. He's good. I knew that Kevin

No, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it, but I do think that they're decent. And I actually like the background singing within it. It's a... You started from the bottom. There's singing there. There's some heart there. Melodic, for sure. Yes, yes. I did it for my father. The shout out for dad. Shout out to LeVar. Yeah, thanks, LeVar. You did it. Yeah, it's solid.

It's very catchy. As everyone has pointed out, it sounds like it's from 2005. Yeah. Okay? I think a lot of people have compared it to, like, Big Timers meets the Madden intro.

Okay, it's that mashup of music and everybody's wondering who's he gonna put on the remix because It feels like you could go so many directions juvenile We're due for a juvenile rejuvenation From 36 mafia, I'm talking Nelly should be on this song. It's got Nelly vibes. I

Oh, man. What a catchy song here. I might swerve down that corner. I want to hear Lonzo and LaMelo on it. Sure. It's by the Ball Brothers. Allegedly, Lonzo is the lyricist behind it. Maybe it's like, you know, there's a... I can't believe I'm going to say this. You know, it's just like Fall Out Boy. What's the guy's name? Pete? Pete. Pete Wentz. Pete writes the songs, but he likes Patrick Stump's voice better, so he has him sing it. Wow.

Wow. That's a team player. Yeah, that's just a Fall Out Boy reference for you. Lots of bands do it, but apparently Lonzo's like, I love your voice, LiAngelo. I wrote a banger for you, but I'd like to hear what the other two can do. Nah, just stick with writing. Yeah, because of this, because I was listening to this, I got sucked into a Lonzo Balls song from, I don't know, four years ago or something. He just sings about his shoes over and over and over again. My shoes hurt my feet.

My dad ruined my career. Yep, that's it. This tweet was going around, too. The only appropriate way to listen to LiAngelo Ball's new track. It's so perfect. It's so good. All right, moving on. The Chicago Bulls will retire Derek Rose's number one jersey next season. Bulls president Michael Reinsdorf shared the news with D. Rose.

ahead of the team's Derrick Rose night celebration on Saturday. I know, you might be a little confused. We had a Derrick Rose night celebration, and then we got news that we're going to retire Derrick Rose's jersey next season. Details will be announced at a later date, but TK, up or down on Rose getting his jersey retired by the Bulls? I am up on this. I agree with you. It's a little surprising they didn't do it on Derrick Rose Day. 1-4-25, they brought back, like,

All of his old teammates. Brad Miller showed up wearing a Sacramento Kings sweatshirt. Aaron Gray was around. We were trying to identify John Lucas III in the group chats. They brought everybody back just to announce that in a year, Derrick Rose is getting his jersey retired. And he's basically getting it retired off of three seasons. Three and a half, if we're being honest. But...

I think it needs to happen for the Bulls because if Derrick Rose, the youngest MVP in league history, the only guy that's won an MVP for the Bulls outside of MJ, the most significant Bull league-wide of the past 25 years, if he doesn't get his jersey retired, then the standard becomes you've got to win six titles. And they'll never retire another jersey again. So I think good stuff retiring Rose's jersey.

for what he did for the Bulls and being from Chicago. It also opens the door, I think, once you've gotten somebody outside of the dynasty for like a Dennis Rodman who wasn't there for very long but won three titles which was very important for them and Joakim Noah I think would probably be next up from the non-dynasty years. So, good stuff. Um...

And weird how that happened. But, you know, they beat the Knicks. That was cool. But, I mean, I'm excited for the Jersey retirement if you base it off the Derrick Rose celebration night, which was – they had a lot of things going around that, and there was a lot of cool activations and stuff like that, and even within the game and stuff like that was neat. So, Tass, I mean, Derrick Rose's connection with Chicago, undeniable. So I can only assume your thumbs up on them honoring him? You're correct. Yes, I am up on it. Yeah.

Because, yes, they really have to redo this ceremony. I was shocked. I turned to it because I saw Joakim Noah doing his speech, and I thought they were retiring his jersey. Being that they're at center court, they're doing the whole thing. But Joakim Noah has to be back next year because I thought Joakim Noah was awesome. I mean, he was really making Derrick Rose cry. He's great on the mic. He was phenomenal.

He had a beautiful Derrick Rose shirt on. It was a great addition. And, you know, Derrick Rose at the end, I thought it was interesting. And he was pretty quick on the mic, but he's –

I think grown from what he used to be, he basically said, that's the old me. I'm a businessman now. So hopefully he has grown and we will see him again next year, I suppose, at a celebration that should have Joakim Noah. Just take the mic and let that guy talk. I mean, he is so good. Rose will be the fifth player in Bulls history to have their jersey retired, joining Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Michael Jordan, and Scotty Pippen. So at some point, probably during the offseason, we'll learn the date that they're going to retire Derek Rose's number. Final one here in the UpDown Report.

He's back. Carnival season is upon us, which means the NBA's creepiest mascot has returned to New Orleans. The diaper-clad King Cake Baby will be back in the Smoothie King Center for Mardi Gras. The Pels tweeted this yesterday, him popping his head up.

It's his time. It's so maniacal. Tass, you're going to start it on this one. Up or down on King Cake Baby's mighty return? I'm a big down. I think I'm done with King Cake Baby. Get him out of here. He's too freaky. His arms look like human arms, and that's what makes him look super. And his legs, too. Oh, yeah, that's a good point. I started looking him from head down to, and then I saw his arms, and I tuned out. I don't want to look at his legs. Oh, here they are.

It's freaky. You're going to see him. It's freaky. Well, luckily I'm outside. I don't have a monitor, so I'm good. No, I'm just past it.

It's too freaky for me. Okay, okay. You're not a fan of the King Cake Baby. TK, thumbs up or thumbs down? I'm like Tass. I'm not a fan of King Cake Baby, but I love that he comes back every year. Son of a... I hate this guy. It's like watching a magic trick. You think you should be able to figure it out, and you get so upset that they keep doing it, and they keep fooling you. It's like they keep bringing back King Cake Baby. Apparently...

He's available for private bookings. $150 for 30 minutes, $300 for an hour. That's not a deal. Just adding. But still, imagine King Cake Baby here just hanging out the entire time. He's obviously busy during the winter months as he's preparing for Mardi Gras, but we can get him in the downtime. Yeah. See some shorts on those legs. Oh, do you think he's...

See, that's interesting. I feel like he's only available during the Mardi Gras celebration, which does last for like a month and a half at least. But I don't know what he does for like the other ten and a half months.

You think we could get him during his downtime? I don't know. Yeah, and is he only around in January and February? He's still, I mean, how many Pelicans games can there possibly be between now and Mardi Gras? 15? He's still got time. It wasn't part of the ad that it's Mardi Gras time. It's not. It's a month away. No, no, it's a very long celebration, though. But it starts in February. Well, I know. But it started now.

Well, the cake baby is just gonna be at games for six weeks? Oh yeah, you're gonna see a lot of King Cake Babies, especially on your social media channels. Which I'm happy about, I'm thumbs up. For those that don't know, by the way, what the hell this guy is, this thing is, I mean, Mardi Gras always has that sugary, sweet, colorful, I guess, King Cake. And then within it are usually small charms, like...

which are, I guess, plastic baby figurines that represent Jesus. And they're hidden in the cake if you get them. That's like, I think it's two things. If you find one, it's good luck for you for the year. And I believe you are in charge of bringing the king cake to the next party.

Oh, that's good. Yeah. I like that. So you have good luck, but you got to go shell out. I don't know. What do these cost? $12.99? Okay. So that's what he is based off of. He's just a giant creepy version of him. He's a big old baby. He's just a person dressed up like a big baby. Yeah. That's what's weird. He's just dressed up like someone at Times Square on New Year's Eve. Or at a diaper.

So do you think one of the Pelicans has to find King Cake Baby around the arena and then they get to bring him to the arena the next year if they're still on the team? I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about that. All right, that's the UpDown Report. Let's hear from all of you guys in the stream team. Thumbs up or thumbs down on all those. Let us know in the YouTube comments. Tweet at us if you want at NoDunkThink. Okay, pick-em results last night. We don't have the graphic here, unfortunately. But I lost...

Who else lost with me? Pass loss, because we took the Philadelphia 76ers. I don't know about you, Tess. I thought Joel Embiid was playing. Oh, I definitely did. Why do we ever think that? He didn't play. Suns won, as we talked about the...

They just had to cover and they just won outright. So what's tonight's game, Tass? Well, initially I saw Golden State was hosting Miami. We've got the Jimmy Butler going to Golden State Connection. Excited about that. Miami on the second night of back-to-backs was a nine and a half point underdog. I thought that was...

that they're that big a dog. But then I saw that Zion Williamson may be coming back for the New Orleans Pelicans. Maybe. He's questionable. So I had to pick the Pelicans hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves. And they're a four and a half point dog, the Pelicans are, at home. And so...

All of us saw that and saw this injured Pelicans team, and we thought, oh, yeah, the Timberwolves are going to cover. Skeets, Trey, myself, we all picked Minnesota, so forcing Esh, essentially, to take the Pelicans because for some reason we've got a rule that all four of us can't take one team. But the line is, I look here at my frozen cell phone outdoors, it's bumped up to five and a half, so I guess that may mean that Zion...

isn't playing or that means that people are just all over the Minnesota Timberwolves after winning last night. I'm not sure. But there you have it. Three of us are taking the T-Wolves

And Ash, sorry. I'm not sorry. I'm out here standing out here for you. You should be out here. You should have lost to some... No, I'm kidding. You've got the old Pelicans. And hopefully Zion's playing. He's questionable from what I saw. But I'm not sure if that's changed. Will King K maybe be in attendance? It's his time. I mean, yeah. I think so. So that'll give him a bump here. But yeah.

Ash does have some points to play with as Pelicans are four and a half point dogs We need the wolves to win by five or more. I'm still looking for my first victory here in January. All right Tass good work obviously How you feeling after standing outside in the below freezing temperatures here for an hour?

I'm feeling slightly numb. I mean, it's not bad. I can't complain. My fingers are slightly cold. I don't really have warm boots living in the South. Yeah. But I've been moving my feet quite a lot. I need to get some moisturizer. I noticed today when putting on my socks that maybe the cold here has made me all ashy. Oh, no. I guess I have to start moisturizing my legs. Oh, gosh.

I see this camera, this robotic camera moving downward. We're getting a good shot of your king, king baby legs. I'm sorry. I've got six layers on my legs, so I can't show you my ashy legs. That's all right. Ash Wednesday is tomorrow. Okay. Hey, happy Orthodox Christmas for people out there. Was that yesterday or today?

It's today for some, yesterday for others. Yesterday was Armenian Christmas. You're right. Yeah. Okay. Great stuff. I guess you don't really say happy Christmas, as I said. No. It's probably merry. That's more of a British thing. Don't they say happy Christmas? Is that a merry? Yeah. If you watch a British Christmas movie, they're saying happy Christmas a lot. It's all right.

All right. All right. So we will see everyone tomorrow here. Some of us in the Classic Factory. Tass once again outside where the temperatures are only getting colder this week in Atlanta as we've hit this cold spell. Thanks so much for joining us. Hit like, subscribe, five star ratings and reviews. Until then, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome.

Thanks for joining us. And remember, even in the winter here in Atlanta, they blow the leaves all over the place with leaf blowers. So I got to go. I told my friend over here, can you shut it off? I'll join you and help you out. We'll do it really quick. So see you. I got to go blow some leaves. All right. See you, Tassie. Embrace the day, people.